Getting started with nothing but a marketing strategy

[Matt Glascock]

I've been working for a real estate broker in my town as a licensed agent for a few months. I'm not thrilled about the pay structure as I will not be paid commission on any purchases or sales that I work on but I can get a small referral fee if I bring exclusive clients in that they wouldn't have gotten without me. The big advantage I see working for this broker is that they are the exclusive buying and selling agent for one of the biggest investors in my area (the guy has basically been playing monopoly in our area for the past 30 years). This investor is in a big purchase period and my broker is having a difficult time sourcing land for them as they are sticking almost exclusively to MLS listings looking for deals. Would I be better served employing my marketing strategy on my own at cost to me or would it be smarter to test run the system on somebody else's dime? There's clearly a need in my market for creative land acquisition that isn't being met but I'm also under contract with this broker so I can't "steal clients" if I do go about this by myself.

Any thoughts on the matter would be greatly appreciated, thanks in advance for your feedback

[Joseph Cacciapaglia]

Originally posted by @Matt Glascock:

@Joseph Cacciapaglia I’m also being paid hourly but not nearly enough to make up the difference for what an average to below average Real Estate agent makes in my area. I understand the pay structure where I work as an agent is unusual but I’m looking at it as a paid internship for the moment as I am relatively new to Real Estate as an investor. One benefit/drawback is all my dues as an agent have been paid for by my employer but if I were to leave I’d have to pay them back on a prorated basis. It appears nobody is doing much market ting to off market properties in my area and that’s where I feel I can capitalize. I’m just debating whether it’d be more beneficial to do somewhat of a beta test with my employer first, on their dime and reaping little to no reward besides maybe a referral from the properties their investor will buy or if it’d better to just start it on my own dime with the intent to wholesale to investors in the area.

-sorry for the long response

 I see. The reason commissioned sales people can make a lot of money, is that they are willing to risk making nothing. In fact, most agents make very little money, and only the top performers do very well. I've known many agents that would have been better off earning minimum wage for the first several months or even couple years of being in the business. Having a base salary and the ability to earn some additional money through referral fees while they're learning would be a setup a lot of agents would jump at.

All that aside, I think this just comes down to your risk tolerance. I'm guessing that you're more risk averse than me, because you chose your current job over a pure commission position at a traditional agency. Whenever I see potential like this, I'm always happy to take the risk so that I can fully benefit from the reward. That doesn't make it the right answer for you though. If you tried doing this on your own, spent a bunch of money, and made nothing for your efforts, how would you handle that? For some that would be devastating, but for the more entrepreneurial among us that would be Tuesday.